Ludwig Wittgenstein and Ben Richards met in the autumn of 1945, when Richards a medical student was attending one of Wittgensteins courses. The loving friendship (in Wittgensteins words) which subsequently developed between them decisively coloured every aspect of Wittgensteins last years.
Their correspondence consisting of more than 370 letters, cards, and telegrams, along with numerous drawings and attachments starts in the summer of 1946, and ends in April 1951, just a week before Wittgensteins death. It gives an incomparably vivid and touching picture of the last five years of Wittgensteins life.
His encounter with Richards was perhaps the deepest love and the greatest happiness of Wittgensteins life. And yet these letters also reveal Wittgenstein as a lonely, vulnerable, and often overbearing man, painfully aware of his dependence on the affection of his much younger beloved friend, and painfully aware of the fragility of their connection.
This collection of letters between Wittgenstein and Richards is not only the single largest correspondence of Wittgensteins that has survived, but more importantly it is by far the most significant and revealing cache of letters between Wittgenstein and someone whom he loved romantically. They offer an entirely new window onto Wittgensteins inner life, and a profound and moving testament to his emotional and intellectual concerns in his last years.
Like all of Wittgensteins writings, the letters are shot through with opinions, humour, and insights, delivered in Wittgensteins typically sharp and powerful manner. In short, this is a most remarkable collection of documents both for those interested in Wittgensteins philosophy, and for those interested in the life of one of the 20th centurys greatest thinkers.
